C# Aurora Changes List v1.00

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Ground Forces Text Summary

The 'Temp as Text' button on the Formation Templates tab of the Ground Forces window will pop up a window with a text version of the selected template composition, which can be copied using ctrl-C and pasted into an AAR. Format is as follows:

Colonial Marine Battalion
Transport Size: 4,914 tons
Build Cost: 156.4 BP
400x Colonial Marine
96x Colonial Marine - LMG
12x Mortar Section
24x Anti-Tank Section
4x Forward Air Control Party
16x Centaur AFV
8x Supply Section
2x Marine Battalion HQ

The 'Total Force Text' button on the Order of Battle tab of the Ground Forces window will pop up a window with a text version of your entire ground force, which can be copied using ctrl-C and pasted into an AAR. Format is as follows:

Total Ground Forces
Total Formations: 116
Total Transport Size: 439,767 tons
Total Cost: 30,210 BP

21,600x Colonial Marine
5,184x Colonial Marine - LMG
1,440x Colonial Marine Raider
1,140x Anti-Tank Section
760x Centaur AFV
570x Mortar Section
448x Supply Vehicle
396x Medium Howitzer
380x Supply Section
360x Colonial Marine Raider - LMG
348x Minotaur Battle Tank
190x Forward Air Control Party
132x Manticore Medium AA
120x Marine Battalion HQ
104x Sphinx Planetary Defence Installation
52x Hydra Planetary Defence Installation
48x Marine Raiding Force HQ
12x Minotaur Command Tank
11x Regimental HQ
4x Marine Company HQ

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Adding Your Own Commander Name Themes

Adding your own commander name themes was not possible in VB6. I've added that option for C# where the theme follows the pattern of First Name - Surname, with the option for both male and female names.

1) Create three text files with one name per line for Male First Names, Female First Names and Surnames. There is no naming convention for file names.
2) Click the second button shown below
3) Enter the theme name in an input field that pops up
4) Select the male names file using a standard windows file dialog box. You are prompted which file to select.
5) Select the female names file using a standard windows file dialog box. You are prompted which file to select.
6) Select the surnames file using a standard windows file dialog box. You are prompted which file to select.

The new commander name theme is added to the database for the current game and all future games.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

'Battlestar Greek' Commander Name Theme

I've added a new Naming Theme for my latest test campaign. It mixes names from Battlestar Galactica with names from Greek Mythology, so I've called it Battlestar Greek. It is a little weird but matches the theme for the campaign so I'm going to make it one of the standard themes. Here is a sample of some randomly generated names.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Ship Achievements

All the medal conditions that potentially apply to ship commanders are recorded for the ship as well. This is maintained separately from the ship commander, so when a commander moves on to a new ship, the current ship retains its achievements, which will continue to increase under the next commander. A ship does not need a commander for the achievements to be recorded. Currently the recorded ship achievements include the following:

Hostile Ships Destroyed
Military Shipping Tonnage Destroyed
Commercial Shipping Tonnage Destroyed
Hostile Missiles Destroyed
Ground Forces Tonnage Destroyed
Armour Damage Taken
Internal Damage Taken
Star Systems Discovered
Ruins Discovered
Bodies With Minerals Discovered
Jump Points Discovered
Habitable World Discovered
Combat Drop - Transport
Tons Salvaged
Stablisations Completed

The ship total for each of the above is displayed on the Ship Design Display tab, under the Ship Overview tab on the Naval Organization window.

EDIT: If a ship has an assigned mothership, the parasite still gets the credit, but the assigned mothership receives a separate credit flagged with (SG) for strike group. Separate achievement entries are shown for the carrier itself and the strike group, even if they are the same achievement.  So if a Battlestar has destroyed 10,000 tons of shipping directly and its Vipers have destroyed 20,000 tons, the achievement list for the Battlestar will show:

Military Shipping Tonnage Destroyed: 10,000 tons
Military Shipping Tonnage Destroyed (SG): 20,000 tons.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Prototype Components

When designing components in the Create Research Project window or the Turret window, you have the option of the Prototype button instead of the Create button. Prototype components are researched instantly and are available in the class design window, where they will appear with a (P) suffix. There is a display toggle on the class design window for prototype components.

Prototypes can be obsoleted to remove from the display. In this case, they will only appear if both the obsolete and prototype options are checked.

On the turret window, prototype energy weapons will be displayed with a (P) suffix. Any turret containing a prototype energy weapon can only be a prototype. The Create button will be unavailable.

If a class contains a prototype component, it will be displayed with a (P) suffix on the class tree and in the class summary on the Class Design window. A shipyard cannot be retooled for a class that contains prototype components.

Prototypes will allow you to try out different class designs without having to research all the potential components.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Assigned Mothership Display

In playing my BSG campaign, I found it difficult to keep track of which mothership was the parent of each survey FAC. Therefore, I have added Assigned Mothership as a field on the ship design display and also added assigned mothership name and fleet to the summary at the top of the Fleet tab of the Naval Organization window.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Future Tech for Prototypes

The Create Project now has a Show Next Tech checkbox. When this box is checked, you will see the the next tech that can be researched in the design options. For example, if you have researched 12cm and Visible Light for lasers, then checking the box will add 15cm and Near Ultraviolet to the design options.

When using the Next Tech option, only Prototype Components can be created.

Prototype Components created when the Show Next option is active will be classed as Future Prototypes and will have an (FP) suffix.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Researching Prototypes

If you select a prototype component on the Class Design window that can be created with current technology (i.e. not a future prototype), you will see a 'Research Proto' button appear. Clicking this turns the prototype into a Research Prototype. Research Prototypes have an (RP) suffix on the class window.

Research Prototypes will appear in the Research tab of the Economics window in their appropriate Research Field. They can now be researched like any other component, except they are still available in class design as a prototype until the research is complete. At that point, the prototype flag will disappear. If that was the last prototype in a class, that class can thereafter be tooled in a shipyard.

The combination of this and previous posts means that any component can in one of four states. A 'normal' component (no suffix), a 'current' prototype (P), a future prototype (FP) and a research prototype (RP).

The various prototype changes mean you can build a prototype class design using prototype components and then research all those components, making the class available for use.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Diplomacy Part 7: Banned Bodies

If a non-spoiler NPR has a relationship of neutral or higher with another race, it will generally avoid approaching 'banned bodies'.

An NPR will decide for itself which bodies are banned, but in general these will include:

• Bodies that have an alien race population of approximately ten million or more
• Bodies that are moons of any bodies in (1)
• Bodies that are moons and share the same parent body as any body in (1)
• Bodies on which the NPR already has a population will be exempt from the above rules

NPRs will not create populations on banned bodies and will not attempt to conduct geological surveys on those bodies. The NPR will not generate points of interest within a few million kilometres of banned bodies. It is still possible that NPR ships will approach due to other considerations, such as moving between two points unrelated to banned bodies, but in general this should prevent the VB6 situation of NPR battle fleets making port visits to your home world.

The banned bodies list is updated at game launch and during each construction phase. Banned bodies do not exist for populations of races with which the NPR has a hostile relationship. If there are two populations on a planet, one of which is hostile to the NPR and one neutral, the body will not be banned.

For example, in the Space 1889 campaign, the Martians will generally avoid Venus, Earth, Luna, all the moons of Jupiter and all the moons of Saturn. They will still survey the Trojan asteroids and they still may pass close to the banned bodies when on an unrelated mission.

NOTE: I looked at various ways of applying this in reverse. The NPR would generate a list of important planets and check for player race ships within a certain range, perhaps ten million kilometres. If they were detected, that would trigger a response, even if the NPR would otherwise not object to the player being in the system. The problem is that the player would have to be checking each ship path to ensure that didn't happen. I even added code to avoid this problem by only flagging player ships that remained within ten million in two consecutive construction phases, but even that is not foolproof. Essentially, the player knows the NPRs is trying to avoid his populations and will react to NPR movements accordingly, but understanding that is much more difficult for the AI. In the end the game play benefit is outweighed by the considerable micro-management required on the part of the player, or by the amount of code that would be needed to avoid accidentally passing through restricted zones. In most situations, the player would want to avoid being detected anyway so this situation would usually only be relevant where a truce countdown is in effect and the player and the NPR share the same home system. The player can RP that situation if needed.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Transponders

In C# Aurora, transponders have three modes; Off, Friendly and All. A transponder set to Friendly will only be detected by Friendly or Allied Races. A transponder set to All will be visible to all races, even hostile ones.

Civilian Shipping will have transponders set to Friendly.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Player Race Banned Bodies

Player Races can ban bodies in the same way as an NPR. Unlike an NPR, the player can select which bodies are banned. This is done via a toggle on the system view. There is an option to ban / un-ban all moons of a planet at once.

Civilians will not create mining colonies on banned bodies and survey ships with standing orders will not attempt to conduct geological surveys on those bodies. It is still possible that player ship will approach due to other considerations, such as moving between two points unrelated to banned bodies. Note this is different to a military restriction, which applies only to the interaction of civilian shipping lines with existing populations.

This player banned bodies function is mainly for role-playing purposes as NPRs react to a player presence in a system, rather than in proximity to a specific body, although it could also be used to prevent the creation of civilian mining colonies.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Shipping Line Names

You can rename shipping lines in C# Aurora. Just click on the 'Admin Command' that represents the shipping line on the Naval Organization window and click Rename. You provide a full name for the shipping line and a short name for the ship naming.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Screen Resolution

I've mentioned the minimum resolution a few times in different places, but I think it is worth including here, especially as it just came up on the Discord.

C# Aurora will launch with a minimum resolution of 1440 x 900. The windows will not be re-sizeable except for the Tactical Map and the Galactic Map and even in that case it is because those windows are intended to fill the whole screen. The Class design window has a 'Wide' option that takes it to about 1800 x 900.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Group Contacts
Similar contacts can be grouped in C# Aurora. This is done via a checkbox on the Tactical Map sidebar entitled 'Group Contacts'. This is similar in concept to the 'Hide Active IDs' in VB6 Aurora but implemented a little differently.

When Group Contacts is active, any contacts with the same alien ship type, the same current coordinates, the same coordinates from the previous increment, the same active sensor emissions and the same contact status will be grouped together. The 001, 002, etc. suffix of the normal contact string will be replaced with a prefix showing how many contacts in the group. If there is only one contact in a location, the grouping is ignored and the normal contact information is displayed. The difference is shown below:

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Lost Contacts

The 'Lost Contacts 1 Month' checkbox will update the tactical map to display any ship contacts less than one month old, rather than the default of current contacts only. This is more sophisticated than the VB6 equivalent and will also provide more information on current contacts where available. For example, you may be currently tracking an alien ship by its thermal emissions only, but you had an active contact a week ago. When Lost Contacts is active, you will see both the current thermal contact combined with the older active contact.

Any ship contact that is only visible because of the lost contact option will display [LOST] after the contact information. A ship contact with a combination of current and older information will display [PARTIAL] after the contact information.

There is also a 'Lost Contacts 1 Year' checkbox, which functions exactly as above except for the period of time. If both boxes are checked, one year takes priority.

Here is a section of my current system map with and without the Lost Contacts option active. The Hegemony of Titan ships near the bottom only appear when Lost Contacts is active. The Venusian freighters at the top left are present in both screenshots, but have more information available when Lost Contacts is active





Lost Contacts can be combined with Group Contacts. Here are two screenshots of Martian ships in orbit of Mars with Group Contacts active. Lost Contacts is active in the second screenshot.